Dandyman Oh

DESCRIPTION: "Dandyman look oo day are break." "Cock are crow." "Neil are go home oh, What you do oh"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: parting ritual dancing nonballad religious ghost Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 26, "Dandyman Oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [95 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "The reel dance gives the living opportunity to enjoy briefly the company of loved ones long dead. But the ancestors must depart from the dance before daybreak and so the farewell ceremony is performed early in the morning before dawn. This is a very sad ritual taking farewell of the ancestor spirits until some future time." - BS
It is interesting to find the idea of a ghost having to depart before cock crows in Tobago, given that the idea is widespread in Europe; see the notes to "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248]." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo026

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